Speaker
Description
Introduction and aim
Color research has mainly used self-report ratings to assess color pleasantness. Since a few studies have also identified different electrocortical responses to various colors (Khadir et al., 2023; Roy et al., 2021), in this study we aimed to clarify the relationship between subjective pleasantness ratings and the corresponding electrocortical activity for single colors varying in hue.
Methods
Twenty-five participants completed a two-part experiment: (a) rating the pleasantness of 8 single colors on a 1-5 Likert scale, (b) viewing the same colors randomly presented across 160 trials during EEG recording. All colors were derived from CIELCh color space with constant chroma (C = 80) and luminance (L = 50), but varying hue angles (hº) at 45º intervals starting from 30º.
Results and conclusions
Pleasantness ratings revealed a significant main effect of Color(p = .007), with no significant effects of Sex or Color (x) Sex interaction. Post-hoc analyses (Holm-corrected) revealed that Blue (1) was significantly preferred over Brown (p = 0.01). ERP analysis (0-600 ms) demonstrated distinct neural responses to the different colors, particularly during early visual processing (75-200 ms). Red elicited higher amplitudes in N75 and N145 components, while green showed lower amplitudes in P100, P200, and N145 components. These color-specific neural responses were most prominent across parietal and occipital electrodes (Pz, POz, Oz, P2). The preference for blue hues and the antithetical role of the red-green dichotomy in influencing EEG oscillations are interpreted in accordance with the Ecological Valence Theory (EVT), formulated by Palmer and Schloss (2010).
